"[I] noticed that the team rebound totals for every team appear to be incorrect from 1956-57 to 1967-68. They are correct in 1968-69. For example in 1956-57 it shows the Celtics led the league in rebounds with 4963. When you add up the rebounds for every player on their roster the total comes to 4578. The points and assists totals match exactly. [...] It is only the rebound total that is off, and it is off for every team by a significant margin."

He's right -- you can see this by adding up the team rebound totals for each league-season and comparing it to the sum of individual player rebounds... It changes around 1968:

Actually, no. It's just a matter of accounting by the official scorer, because technically speaking, for every missed shot there has to be a rebound.

Starting in 1968-69 (1967-68 in the ABA), so-called "team" rebounds (rebounds where there was no clear individual who should receive credit) were no longer counted toward a team's overall rebounding total. Before that, "team rebounds" were credited at the team level, but they (obviously) didn't make it into individual rebounding totals. This is what caused the massive discrepancies between teams' rebounds and the sum of their individual players' rebounds.

Nowadays, those "team rebounds" are thrown into their own bucket, neither allocated to individuals nor to teams for the purpose of overall stat totals.

I am sad to announce that after six years, five websites, and hundreds of thousands of lines of code, my tenure at Sports Reference will come to an end this week. More information can be found on my new blog, Statitudes. Thanks to all of the users who have supported the sites that I ran.

Just in case you missed this last month year, we now offer the option to search for double- and triple-doubles using the Player Game Finder tool. Under "Additional Criteria", just check the box next to "Double-Double" or "Triple-Double", and you'll be able to find games that match any combination of points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks that meet the criteria you're looking for.

As you can see, Jordan's stints away from the game have been included in the table. In most cases we have been able to identify a reason the player did not play (injury, retirement, other league, etc.) and will note that in the row.

If you have any questions or comments about this addition or anything else, please let us know.